At the General Election held on November 6, 2012, the voters of Napa County approved a ½-cent sales tax increase known as Measure T, the Napa Countywide Road Maintenance Act of 2012. The Measure T County-wide sales tax was implemented July 1, 2018, immediately following the sunset of the County-wide flood improvement ½-cent sales tax increase known as Measure A. The sales tax will be implemented by the Napa Valley Transportation Authority – Taxing Authority (“NVTA-TA”), and the tax proceeds will be allocated among all local agencies within the County.

The City of Napa maintains about 218 miles of streets. The City primarily relies on gasoline taxes to pay for street maintenance. However, in recent years revenue from the gas tax has been flat as cars have become more fuel efficient, while the number of vehicles on the road has risen creating more wear and tear, and the cost of street maintenance has gone up. Gas tax funds are no longer sufficient to maintain our streets at the level needed. Measure T will provide another source of funds to bring our streets up to a state of good repair.

Measure T is intended to compliment, not supplant or replace, the City’s current level of effort regarding transportation infrastructure maintenance. The funds cannot be used for new roads or congestion relief ―the tax is only for maintenance of our local streets. It also requires a review of expenditures by an oversight board and the funds cannot be used to offset funds that are currently being spent on roads.

This ensures that the City’s total budget for street maintenance will be increased for the life of the measure. The City of Napa has taken steps in recent years to increase street maintenance with paving programs and sidewalk repair programs. However, maintenance needs still exceed the funding available. The additional $8 million a year that Measure T would provide would help the City of Napa meet the need.

In 2012, Napa County voters passed Measure T, which will generate almost $500 million over 25 years to pay for maintenance, reconstruction, and rehabilitation of local streets, roads, and sidewalks countywide. Measure T went into effect July 1, 2018, when Measure A (the Flood Control Project) expired, so there will be no increase in taxes for our citizens. Instead, the existing half-cent sales tax will shift from supporting flood control to supporting street maintenance. Clickhere to read the ordinance.

No, the City of Napa is already required to calculate what it spent for road maintenance between 2007 and 2010 and maintain that spending level in future years. Measure T is intended to supplement, not supplant, the City’s current level of effort regarding transportation infrastructure maintenance.

Measure T requires that 99% of the funds raised by the tax be spent on street maintenance and rehabilitation; only 1% can be used for administrative and reporting costs. The funds cannot be used for new roads or congestion relief; they are only for maintenance of our streets and infrastructure within the road right of way.

The State of California maintains Highway 29, but the City of Napa is responsible for maintaining 220 miles of arterials, collectors and local neighborhood streets. The projected $8 million a year the City will receive from Measure T will significantly accelerate the City’s paving progress, particularly on arterials and collectors.

While the City’s regular street paving program focuses on residential streets, the additional Measure T dollars will provide funds to repair higher volume roadways. Instead of fixing one street at a time, the funds will allow the City to address multiple needs at once across the City.

The City of Napa is required to biennially develop and submit to the Authority a five-year list of projects to be funded with revenues made available for the Local Streets and Roads Maintenance Program. Napa City Council will conduct a public hearing and adopt a resolution in support of the proposed list of projects prior to submitting the project list to the Authority.

The initial five-year work plan is designed to focus on arterial and collector streets with greater needs driven by higher traffic volumes, heavily used corridors, and streets for which City staff receive large volumes of complaints. For example, year 1 includes Trower Avenue west of Jefferson Street, which was in need of surface repair even before the City recently completed the Trower Storm Drain CIP, which installed a large diameter storm drain the length of the reach. The plan also stages the work along some of the corridors that need both heavy concrete maintenance and surface treatment, with the concrete work happening in one construction season and the paving work following during the next construction season, ending with a complete street repair. The Westwood Neighborhood is another area that the City plans on rehabilitating within the five-year plan. The first phase is to include pavement repair and concrete work on Kilburn Avenue, Chelsea Avenue, Bryan Avenue, Bancroft Court and Bremen Court. Another example is the high-traffic volume stretch of Trancas Street from Jefferson Street west to State Route 29. This reach is in need of surface repair, traffic signal replacement, ADA ramp concrete work and surface drainage repairs.

This work is separate and distinct from the City’s 10-mile-a-year paving program, which will remain in effect and remain focused on local and neighborhood streets. Additionally, the Measure T program will include traffic signal replacement and traffic signal interconnection. It will also consider the needs of non-motorized travelers, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and persons with disabilities, in all planning, maintenance, construction, operations, and project-development activities and products. The adopted 5-year work plan will be submitted to the Measure T Independent Taxpayer’s Oversight Committee for review and recommendation for adoption by the NVTA-TA Board. The City’s 5-year work plan is required to be updated every two-years and follow the same adoption process to ensure proper application of the Measure T funds.

In order to receive funding, the Local Agencies of Napa County must demonstrate to NVTA-TA that they have collectively committed eligible non-Measure T revenues totaling at least 6.67% of the value of the total annual allocations of Measure T funds to Class 1 Bike Facility projects identified in the adopted Countywide Bicycle Plan. These funds may consist of local funds (General Fund, Gas Tax, etc.) or other non-competitive State and Federal funds.

The first two projects, Trower Avenue Rehabilitation and Westwood Neighborhood Rehabilitation Phase 1, have been awarded this summer by City Council and are in the early stages of construction. Trancas Street Rehabilitation is in the design phase and minor concrete work and signal improvements will begin in fall of 2018 followed by paving work in summer of 2019.